I Shoot Mathews

New Zealand Huntingmoon

March 17, 2011 by Rachelle Hedrick

My husband, Josh, and I went to New Zealand for our “huntingmoon” in March 2010. We hunted with Leithen Valley Trophy hunts on the South Island. We signed up for 2 stags, but when I saw a white fallow deer, I fell I love and had to have it! The next couple of days we stalked some pretty nice red stags. I came across one that was bedded down and at the time, really couldn’t see exactly what he looked like. But the wind was blowing so hard and he had no idea I was there, so I decided to go for it. I got my Mathews Passion ready and crawled as close as I could get before standing up and drawing back at 25 yards. When he stood up, he did a full circle, then stood there looking at me. I took my shot!! I thought I had hit him in a good spot, but the wind was so rough, I thought maybe it blew the arrow back to far. He ran off…no blood! My heart was pounding and the search was on. My husband and the guide took a walk out to the right…but in my heart, I felt I needed to go left. I walked around the area, back and forth, thinking “if I were that red stag, which way would I want to go?” I walked about 50 yards and saw the top of his antlers making a circle motion. He was down, and he was hurt. A few minutes later I decided to throw another arrow into him to quicken the process. Perfect shot…but he saw me. So up he stood and off he ran. Thankfully it was only about another 50 yards before he went down for good. The guide said, “WOW! That’s bigger than I thought”, He was bigger than we ALL thought. The guider suggested I turn it in for SCI scoring, so I did. He scored 416 and rated #11 for estate archery. (I missed the top 10 by 2 points) I just got the mount back and it is absolutely beautiful. Now I will get to lay my SCI plaque next to it!! …And for those of you wondering, my husband got a really great red stag as well, with his Mathews DXT, scoring 391. It was an amazing, memorable trip and we can’t wait to go back!!